Ready meal lasagne a bone of contention

The item found in a lasagne from the Co-Op in Lees.

A STUNNED shopper got the shock of his life when he discovered what he believed to be animal bone in a high-end ready meal.

Andrew Wilson, of Grasscroft, bought the Truly Irresistible lasagne al forno from the Co-op in Lees after a long day at work.

He returned home and cooked the meal and began tucking in but after a few bites he made the horrifying discovery.

Andrew said: “I’d been on a long journey and called in to buy what I thought was a quality ready meal.

“I started eating and found something crunchy. At first I thought I’d burnt the pasta so I had another mouthful.

“Then I found it and started gagging. I spat it out and just ran to throw up. It was disgusting. It’s supposed to be a truly irresistible meal, it was anything but.”

Andrew took the meal back to the store the following day to complain about what he found and said he was told that chicken stock can be used in sauces.

He raised concerns over what he found, sparking an internal investigation into the foreign object.

After further investigation, the Co-op sent him their findings in a report which claimed that the object could have been tomato stalk that slipped through the filtering process.

The report said that “all the appropriate paperwork from this day’s production has been checked and there is no indication that this product did not meet all the customer’s requirements”.

Andrew said: “I was disgusted with the response. I’m not a fool. I know that wasn’t vegetable.

“I’m no chef so I often buy ready meals. But this has messed me up a bit and now I’m worried what will be in it. I want them held to account for this.”

The report also said that “despite our stringent checks, we regret that you were not satisfied and we have informed the relevant production and technical personnel of this complaint in order that our high standards are maintained”.

A spokesman for The Co-operative Food, added: “We’re committed to working closely with our suppliers in order to ensure that we offer consistently great products and, customer experiences.

“The matter has been investigated thoroughly in order to ensure that these high standards are maintained and, we are writing to the customer — we are sorry that this product fell short of those expectations.”